Planters commonly employ an on-demand, air-assisted seed conveying system to transport, deliver, or otherwise convey a plurality of seeds stored in a central bulk seed container mounted to the planter to locations along a width of the planter for planting in furrowed rows. A flow of air produced from a first air source is guided to a manifold that receives seeds from the container, where it gathers a plurality of seeds, and is then pushed, along with the gathered seeds, to a plurality of row units along the planter.
Planters also commonly employ a second air system produced from a second air source to assist the seed singulating meters of the machine in singulating seeds from the mass of seeds supplied to the row units by the conveying system. Unlike grain drills where a metered stream of multiple seeds is dispensed to the ground, a planter must be able to singularly meter and drop one seed at a time, such that, ideally, a row of spaced-apart, singular seeds is planted in the furrow.
In prior art planters, it is common to provide two air sources for the seed conveying and seed metering functions described above. The purpose for doing so is that the metering air pressure to the seed meters must remain generally constant for accurate singular seed metering. During operation of the planter, it is common to have significant and frequent fluctuations of a fan speed (the air source for the seed metering system) due to changing operating conditions of a tractor pulling the planter and the planter. For example, when the planter turns at an end of the field and prepares for the next pass in the opposite direction, a drain on a hydraulic motor is commonly experienced, which results in reduced RPM and the fan slowing and not producing as high an air pressure. With a reduced air pressure, the risk of multiple seed skips is increased.
For the first air source that is providing the flow of transporting air to the seed conveying system, a change in pressure of the flow of air is not particularly problematic, as the seed conveying system does not require a generally constant or uniform supply of air pressure. However, for the second air source that is providing the flow of air to the seed meters, a generally constant or uniform air pressure is desired so as to facilitate the singular metering of the seeds. Given the disparate air pressure requirements for the seed conveying and seed metering, prior art planters commonly employ the dual air sources.
Accordingly, there is a need for an air-assisted planting system that is provided with a single air source for both the seed conveying and seed metering functions. More particularly, there is a need for an air-assisted planting system that maintains an air pressure to the seed metering system at the expense of the seed conveying system. As such, there is a need for an air-assisted planting system operable to produce, monitor, and control the air pressure provided to the conveying system and the metering system, and, based upon a sensed air pressure to the metering system, to selectively divert a flow of air to either or both of the conveying system and metering systems so as to insure stabilized air pressure to the metering system.
Embodiments of the present invention solve the above-described problems and provide a distinct advance in the art of air-assisted planting systems for planters. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention provide an air-assisted planting system having a single source of a flow of air for both the conveying system and the metering system. The flow of air can be selectively diverted and divided to provide generally constant and uniform air pressure to the seed meters. In more detail, embodiments of the present invention comprise a conveying system including a bulk seed hopper, an on-demand seed manifold, a primary seed conveying air line, and a plurality of secondary seed conveying air lines; a seed metering system including a primary metering air line, a metering air manifold, a plurality of secondary metering air lines, and a plurality of corresponding singulating meters on row units that receive air from the secondary air lines; and an air handling system operable to produce, monitor, and control a flow of air, wherein the air handling system is in fluid communication with the conveying system and the metering system and includes a single fan assembly, an air splitter assembly, and an air controller.
The drawing figures do not limit the present invention to the specific embodiments disclosed and described herein. The drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the invention.